There is provided a smoking article that includes a plurality of elements, including a front-plug and an aerosol-forming substrate, assembled in contact with a cigarette paper to form a rod. The front-plug is located upstream from the aerosol-forming substrate. In use, a heating element is inserted into the smoking article and the aerosol-forming substrate is heated to generate an aerosol. When the heating element is subsequently withdrawn from the smoking article, the front-plug acts to retain the aerosol-forming substrate within the rod.